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Phrases We Hardly Ever Hear Anymore

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Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
These days, a lot of the phrases we used to commonly hear are falling by the wayside. One I recall hearing in my youth and up through my 20's was "quietus"...pronounced kwi-EET-us...and used to refer to a discussion that had been ended emphatically, usually by someone making a strong point that the other parties couldn't refute. "He sure put the quietus on that subject," or something to that effect, is how I remember hearing the phrase. But "the quietus" was being "put" on some subject--or some person--in the only context I ever heard the phrase.
Anybody else remember hearing that one...or was this just a regional usage [which might explain why I haven't heard it used in about 30 years]?
 
I remember "you aint just a woofin" meaning i agree with you wonderd if it came from dogs woofing ??? also pesky on it
 
That was fairly common cowboy lingo in the Southwest (NM, AZ, probably NW TX, maybe more) in the 50"s, 60"s; never did hear of it"s origin or what it came from.
As you said, usually meant the emphatic ending of some discussion or difference of opinion; in the Southwest, at least, often implying the inclination to, the offer of, or actually busting the other party in the chops...
 
"Sure I'll come in early and stay late, I need the money and I'm thankful for the job".

Don't hear that one any more. Now all anyone wants is a full day's pay for a half-day's work. Most employees aren't trying to better themselves or be willing to wait and EARN nicer things. After they put in 40 hrs they want to go home as they have "earned" it.

Whatever happened to working extra hard to have a better future, and to waiting for the nicer things in life that you must EARN?
 
When a person would drag something out for an excessive length of time, "He went the long way around the bucket looking for the bail"

Or when relating someones point of view "Depends on who's bull is getting gored"
 
Now that's a word, <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/quietus">quietus</a>, that I havn't heard in a long time.

I guess an example of it's use would be "Sometimes the monitors put the [b:654c4848f0]quietus[/b:654c4848f0] on a post".
 
When I was an apprentice my mechanic would send me to fetch something and would always say, "take your time going but hurry back". Now I tell my apprentice this, and he chuckles just as I did back then. Have a good one.
 
i can do it myself (get it done).
get shed of (remove it).
i called myself a looking (overlooking something).
well shut my mouth (amazed).
as a cartoon in todays paper says; "heck" is a place where people go to when they don't believe in "gosh".
 

Some old expressions are related to use of horses. A welcome used to be "get down and come in" obviously coming from riding on a horse. "Works well in double harness" referred to being happily married.

KEH
 

I used to work [ carpentor ] with a guy that always said ... 6 of one .. or .. ahalf dozen ... you choose ...
Mark
 
My great-grandmother used to say "my stars"

My dad used to say "oh my achin' back,

Others:

"ain't worth a plug nickel"
"you ain't just whistlin Dixie"
"pig in a poke" (what's a poke?)
"cain't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear"
"he's gettin too big for his britches"
"moves slower than molasses in the winter time"
"get movin, we're burnin daylight"
 
don't let the doorknob hit ya where the good Lord split ya......

talkin out your a$$ when your head knows better
 
When I was a kid I used to hear people use the phrase, "you should be ashamed of yourself" (thankfully I wasn't told this directly often).
As an Ag Teacher that deals with kids all the time they tell me they almost never hear this phrase.
 
"Wouldn't that unplug your coffe pot?"

"He's kind of like Paul Revere's ride. A little light in the belfry".
 
Looks like he fell out of an ugly tree and hit every limb on the way down!

Looks like he's been in 100 fights and never won a round.

Why couldn't I have been born rich instead of so damm good lookin'

Looks like he played football four years at Oklahoma and never wore a helmet.

He's was so ugly when he was born the Dr. slapped his mother.
 
"Whatever turns you on" from an electrician I use to work with.

"Confound it" from and old Dutch carpenter.

"Whatever floats your boat" from and old pleasure craft boat yard mechanic.
 
"He was as nervous as a "lady of the evening" in church" (the right term they bleeped me on)
 
The phrase, "buying a pig in a poke" came from buying the animal without having the bag opened so the customer could see it. European Marketing 101.
 
A lot of the phrases I learned while growing up I've stopped using mainly because they got more dumb looks from the younger set than understanding of the point I was trying to make. Also some of the 'language' isn't considered appropriate in this PC age.
I used a newer one last night right after a shift meeting that would have made any management trainer proud though. My boss sat in on one of my pre shift meetings and one of the guys saw it as an opportunity to put me on the spot in front of my boss about and "interpersonal relationship" matter I was working on. (he wasn't getting along with somebody from another shift). This Pi$$ed me off just a little, so I snapped back "you sure as he11 wern't hired here for your dashing good looks or charming personality, so suck it up princess and don't make me think I made a bad decision!"
A couple people walked away with their hat in their hand. Later my boss wanted to know where I learned that phraise. I collected pieces of it here and there.
 
For years the older generation has decried the lack of manners in the younger generation. It was that way 50 years ago when I was a kid, it was that way 25 years before that when my dad was a kid, and it was that way 100 years ago when my grand-dad was a kid.

Maybe the reason you never hear these words anymore is because of the people you hang around with. My folks always told me that if I didn't hear the kinds of things I wanted to from the crowd I hung out with, if the problem wasn't me, then I needed to find some better people to hang out with.
 
Mom also used to say--when she was able to say it correctly--that when someone or something passed her in a hurry, he or it was "movin' on like Moody's goose." I have no earthly idea to this day who Moody was, or why his goose was so swift.

[Of course, there were those days when Mom got excited and tongue-tied, and she'd say "he was movin' on like goosie's azz", and we'd all about split ourselves laughing until we cried.]
 
My BIL the union plumber say's you only need to know 2 things about plumbing:

"Sh*t flows downhill and payday is on Friday"
 
Another expression I heard while growing up was used to express someone's state of utter confusion: "He didn't know whether to shutt of go blind." I believe that was a perversion of "He didn't know whether to shutt and go blind, or squint and fart."

Don't hear that one much anymore, either.
 
My great-grandmother used to say 'You look like something that was called for and couldn't come' or 'like Hobbs' odd ox'. If you couldn't find something right in front of you she would say 'if it was a bear it woulda bit ya'.
 
Anyone that doesn't beat around the bush and pulls no punches can be "as rough as a cob"

"Slicker than a greased pig"

"As busy as a braying mule"
(Grandma used this when we kids were looking for ways out of work)
 
Couldn't be any better unless I had my right mind.
His elevator doesn't go to the top floor.
Been around the world twice, to three goat ropen's and a watermelon roast and I ain't never seen nothin like that before.
 
Richer than 4 foot up a bulls azz.

She/he could eat horse apples through a picket fence. (buck toothed)

Dumber than a box of sh*t.
Uglier than a sh*thouse Rat
Shes just barely pretty...(homely)
Its Hotter than a well digger azz.
I felt like a basta*d at a family reunion.
 
I wonder why I always hear,,,

Dumber then a Texas mule,

ha ha ha,,, seems to fit most from any Texan I know ,,,
 
What the Sam Hill is that?
Want some chocolate lick-dob on that ice cream?
If I had a swing like that I'd paint it red and put it on the porch.
 
I love this here goes:
1.More nervous than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
2.I have fired better help than you!!
3.heal up and harden up
4.Tougher than a bag of hammers
5.sharper than a razor blade.
6. runs like a sewing maching and has about as much power.
7.Faster than greased lightning
8.Hotter than the hinges of hell
9. A few gears shot of a 5speed
10.few bricks short of a full pallet
11.could break an anvil with a rubber hammer
12.more slippery than a greesed pig or eel
 
I haven't seen you in a coon's age.

I haven't seen you since Hector was a pup.

Colder than a banker's heart.

Colder than a welldigger's azz.

Colder than a witch's t*t in a brass bra.

He's a few sandwiches shy of a picnic.

If brains were dynamite, he couldn't blow his nose.

Ugly as a mud fence.

Crazy as a sh*thouse rat.

She's built like a brick sh*thouse.

Tight as Dick's hatband.

Good as snuff, and not as dusty.

Finer than frog's hair.

Slicker than snot on a doorknob.

Meaner than a snake.

Lower than a snake's belly.

Cuter than a speckled pup.

Green as a gourd.

Wilder than a buck.

He could squeeze a nickel until the buffalo squealed. ( From back in the days of buffalo nickels )

He zigged when he should have zagged.

He has champagne taste on a beer budget.

He doesn't know sh*t from shinola.

Wish in one hand, and sh*t in the other, and see which one fills up the quickest.

Dumber than a sack of rocks.

She looks like someone set her on fire, then beat it out with an ugly stick.

Smooth as a baby's bottom.

Like ugly on an ape.

Like stink on sh*t.

Like a chicken on a june bug.

Like a dose of epsom salts through a widow woman.
 
Here's one I never hear any more "I love my job."

I used to work with an old man who now runs the spreader truck for the local co-op. He was always picking on people and when ever you made fun of him about something he would look at you and say "I've climed over bigger men than you gett'n to a fight" or "you'd rather **** off a bob cat in a phone booth than mess with me today".

Dave
 
One guy I know though bald as a billiard ball says

"I'm not bald, that's a solar panel for a s*x machine"

2, Musta got run over by a truckload of ugly sticks.

3, Dumber than a box of rocks.

4, Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

5, Who rattled your cage.
 
Excuse me? Any time I say "excuse me" out of habit, I get the strangest looks.
Sir, would you like me to check the oil?
At one of my first jobs in life, this old guy would ask just about everybody: "Are you going to amount to anything today?" Mark.
 
I once worked with a guy who, every morning, would ask, "Did you bring your lunch or ride a bicycle?"

Used to drive me nuts. . .

He died a couple years ago - wish I could hear him say it one more time.

Paul
 
grandpa would say, are you up for allday or just what's left of it. when ask mom where dad was when he was late? he went to see a man about a horse. ment none of your buisness.
 
Tinker, I'd swear you were from Southern Illinois. I hear all of those around here.

How about "freeze the balls off of a billiard table"

"Tighter than the skin on a bean"

Paul
 
It looks like she was poured into her dress and no one said "when".

The lady walking away looks like two pigs fighting in a sack.
 
Had an old guy tell me one day when I was a teenager working in a grocery store: "Don't mess with me, son, or 12 months from today you'll be dead a whole year!"
 
Who yanked your chain?

He's not pushing a full load of bricks.

S#!t or get off the pot.

I'm going to see a man about a dog. (nobody's business)

I'm doing purdy good, I get better but then get over it.

Plumbers motto: Your S#!t is my bread and butter.

All a plumber needs to know: S#!t won't run uphill, hot's on the left, paydays on Friday and the boss is a SOB.

David....................
 
My two favorite words, fix'n and nearbouts.
Examples:
"Honey, supers nearbouts ready".
"OK sweetie, I'm fix'n to wash up and come eat".
Oh and another was purtnear as in Are we purtnear there yet?
And a new one I heard today for the first time. Guy said he's looking for a wholesome woman, said she has to have a hole and some.
I know I'm getting old, it took a minute or two to understand what he meant.
 
Hey there;
A long time ago my wife,(she was about 13-14 years old),asked her granny,"did you ever feel like your skin was crawling", granny said "well I guess you might say so". My wife, smartalcky as she was said, "what did your "a-hole" smell like when it passed over your nose"??
And shes skinner than "six-O"clock"
busier than a cat covering crap on a marble floor
spinning like the button on the out-house door
 
"Tighter than a Bull's butt in fly season".

Hotter than a "half Boinked fox in a forest fire".

"Stiffer than a three peckered billy goat"

"Sharper than a bowling ball"
 
My Grandma used to call the ones with mental disabilities "doppik". Not sure how that's supposed to be spelled, but I've heard it a few times before she died. Still makes me chuckle when I think of her.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
When my dad was working on a car and he'd drop a wrench he'd say "That's the only thing that still goes as far as it used to."

Or when a difficult job was coming up he'd say "This is where the cheese gets binding."
 
To buy a pig in a poke, to buy something without seeing it first,to buy a blind bargain,
a poke is a pouche, bag[ a pig in a bag] can't be seen.
 
"Be careful how you treat people on the way up, there the sames one you meet in the way down." "The chickens come home to roost." "I rule the roost & my wife rules the rooster." "It would be easier to teach a dog how to read." " I did teach a mule how to read but had to get rid of him. No body likes a smart Xss."
 
I was trying to highlight sayings we seldom hear anymore. Yet many, if not most, of the posts I've seen are about sayings I hear at least once a month, if not more often.

So I guess that'll put the quietus on me saying any more about seldom-heard sayings.
 
Well, the one about less than a full load of bricks has generated a lot of similar ones around here, often dealing with wheelbarrow, spreaders, buckets, etc. Mostly understood by farmers!
 
Don't remember quietus, but similar in meaning is "kiabosh"- as in "Mom sure put the kiabosh on that idea!"
 
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